CraigH

Thanks for the comments.

It has been somewhat therapeutic having the Vette away since mid December allowing me to relax and work on other projects.

Cant say I have not been a little anxious but I trust Peter to do a good job.

The blue is "Bridgehampton Blue"

I have seen a fair variation in it on cars and have a set of original 1971 colour samples I picked up a few years back as well.

We are trying to match the "last version" of Bridghampton Blue thats as used on the car a number of years back in the US.

Our starting point, from a paint analyser, is a Suzuki colour

Z7K M3467 Brilliant Blue pearl Suzuki Metallic

My Hood was shot in that colour a few years back and the match was great - missing a little of the green aqua tones from the original but you only noticed it under fluorescent lights.

Peter is doing more tinting today.

CraigH

Slowly progressing.

Front end is in process of being rubbed out.

One thing Peter and Graham commented on was that the current clear & colour is very thin. Has been taken back to glass previously but you can cut through the clear and colour so easily

While discussing the blend yesterday we found a hairline crack in the drivers side rear arch lip.

Given the clear will blend back that way I decided to grind it out and glass it up. Hopefully get it done early next week so we can get to paint shortly after.

caskiguy

Don't know if this will help for paint mixing, just something I found the other day. Gonna be a beauty for sure. http://paintref.com/paintref/index.shtml

Primoz

I hope you manage to clean it nice and thorough when the painting is done.
That dust goes everywhere and it stuck to my chasis and engine bay that hard that I can't get it cleaned like I want to.
Otherwise keep it up! Can't wait for the finished car!

CraigH

Yesterday we had some paint shot onto cards using the Suzuki colour that the colour tester read from the Bridgehampton blue off my car as well as the original dealer paint cards I have from 71.

When we had it at various points on the vette it showed we had at least 2 variations of the blue on each rear quarter.

On one side its a perfect match just needing a minor amount of red added.

On the other we need a bit more red !!

So after last time it was painted there was a couple of touch ups in one rear quarters.

Overall the Suzuki colour is so close and its what we shot my hood with last time with no extra tinting and it matched great.

CraigH

Yes I look at the dust and sludge from sanding etc and wonder the same thing

Normally we have the hood area under sheets but we were moving it around etc

It will get a lot of cleaning and a bit of freshen to the engine bay after this.

What worries me the most is the wiring harness and stuff under the nose.

But it can all be brought back - have done it before, its just time

Also windows have been shut most of the time as I added push levers to both doors so the can open them up easily without handles - alternative was windows down !!!!

Also have a set of new cut pile carpets to go in at some stage so not that worried about carpets.

Even though they have been fairly good with keeping it tidy, but it is a panel and paint shop not my garage :-)

Got to keep my eye on the end game.

Primoz

Alan 71

Hi Craig,
Very good to hear that there's progress!!!

"its just time"
This is so true! People want to hear that there's some 'detail magic' you spray on and the dust dissappears.
But there's not!
It takes determination!

You seem to be very good getting a car clean!
And now you'll have even more impetus to get it looking the way you'd like after the detailed bodywork and new paint!

Regards,
Alan

CraigH

So the good and the bad.

The good is that we have the entire front end back through the doors blocked out and looking good and repairs smoothed in.

CraigH

The bad news is the fine crack in the rear guard is more than a fine crack.

Because we want to blend into the rear quarters we don't want to spray over a hairline crack so.......I went into the paint shop and pulled the wheel and had a closer look.

Ok a past repair where they strengthened the rear of the wheel arch lip and filled the outside. sounds normal I suppose....

So i started to grind at the glass added to the back and it mostly came off fairly easily.

Would have helped if they had cleaned the dirt off before applying it.

So I decided to take the Vette home and work on it.

Quick trip home as i am only 10 minutes from the shop and I ground all the old repair out from behind the guard.



It was really not too bad with only a few thin spots

Then ground out the hairline crack.









Tomorrow I will lay up the entire inside with new glass to strengthen it then when dry I will grind more of the front out and lay some glass in.

Just a small setback.

SB64

Hey Craig. the paint database info was good reading. Good that you found the rear lip repair before hand. Hopefully you can get a few pictures of the blending process when you get it to paint.
Very nice work!

RVZIO

Alan 71

Hi Craig,
I don't think there's ANY downside to finding something that requires more attention at this point because....
from your thread I get the feeling that the idea in your case is to do things right.....
not to see how FAST you can do it.
Carry on!
Regards,
Alan

DUB

I am glad that I read what you wrote.

From what I can tell and it is a bit hard to tell for sure...but it looks like they had a thick layer of some body filler in the area you ground out.

I am sure you know that IF it is a lot of body filler there...If I may without seeming to be bossy or demanding. I would suggest that you grind out all of the filler where you know you are going to apply your mat and resin. If that is the method you are choosing to fix the exterior.

DUB

CraigH

Hi Dub

I will be grinding out the front more before laying glass up on the outside.

The inside is amazing smooth with no major cracks etc so i think it has just had some damage to the lip.

Once I do some more grinding I will know the extent :-)

CraigH

Yesterday I glassed the inside of the wheel arch using strips that went around 60% of the curve and filled the gap where it was cracked.

Now I started sanding back the wheel arch.

Found 3 older repairs and they had built up the arch and lip by a couple of mm's with body filler for a fair bit..

Imagine it is just easier to finish in filler than glass when your on the clock.







v





I then laid up a new glass layer over the entire arch and will start to reshape it when it sets up.

SB64

As usual, very nice clean work. A credit to the forum on how you can do repairs to these great looking cars. Nice Craig!

RVZIO

PainfullySlow

Ugh, I am sorry to hear about the latest development but I for one am glad to watch your progress through this difficult area. I have similar cracks in my project right there and it really helps to see how you handled it so, thank you for your dedication and hard work. Not only to your car but documenting it for us here on the forums.

DUB

Not that any of this matters.

You are correct on the fact that it is easier to apply VPA than it is to laminate.

Being 'on the clock'...at least for me.... is not what controls how I repair a damaged area. I know some people worry about that. They sacrifice quality for speed. NOT ME!

It has everything to do with if the repair is needing to be laminated on the exterior or not....and has nothing to do with time savings or what is easier. I guess years of doing this has shown me what will and will not work.

Because when I laminate...no matter what....if it is on the exterior of a panel. I always undercut the repair slightly and apply a skim coat of VPA on top of it to take out any chance of minute imperfections in the lamination. And I am doing it this way so when I go to apply gelcoat or my primer..I do not have numerous small microscopic pinholes in the laminated area that will now greatly increase in size once the gelcoat or primer hits it. SO there is always going to be some amount of VPA on it anyway.

DUB

DUB

Looks very good! You should be happy with that repair so far.

DUB

CraigH

good points DUB, especially re pin holes

I am more referring to the "on the clock attitude" of the average repair shop that probably did the 3 repairs i found.

They did a skim of normal body filler not VPA.

BTW VPA is not easy to get in Australia as the vendor does not bring it in and it is prohibited from certain shipping methods.

FiberTech seems pretty good for some of the external places where it would have been used.